Gershom

Gershom (meaning: a stranger here) was the firstborn son of Moses and Zipporah, born during Moses's sojourn in Midian before the Exodus. Moses named him Gershom, explaining: I have been a sojourner in a foreign land (Exodus 2:22; 18:3), expressing his sense of displacement from the Egypt where he was raised and from the Israelite people he was called to lead. The name captures the liminal identity of Moses himself between two worlds during this period of his life.

Gershom's descendants included Jonathan son of Gershom, who became a priest to the tribe of Dan's idolatrous shrine at Laish (Judges 18:30), with some manuscripts reading Jonathan as a descendant of Manasseh rather than Moses — a scribal alteration possibly intended to protect Moses's reputation. In Chronicles, Gershom's line is listed among the Levites who returned to serve in the restored temple under Ezra (Ezra 8:2). The name Gershom also belongs to the firstborn son of Levi through a different lineage, underscoring its use as a tribal and family name throughout Israelite history.